daytripping Archives

We went to see Julian Lage’s 10th anniversary performance of World’s Fair at Maryland Hall in Annapolis tonight. It was sublime, and he is a wonder.

I don’t listen to him often – I love his work with Nels Cline, and I have a few tracks on a commuter playlist (Omission, In Heaven, Emily). He won me over in Big Indian, NY at an event I attended, and I really enjoy watching him play live. He sounded superb, and I’ve never seen anyone play an acoustic guitar the way he did.

Super duper.

I grew up near Annapolis, and I’ve taken Beverly there once before. Today, we ate at Mike’s Seafood off of Riva Road – that was a great meal. And, I finally visited Third Eye Comics. That is a serious place.

I am particularly grateful for day trips. Last week, it was Washington DC. A day trip can take the edge off, if you get what I mean.

We went to DC to the National Museum of Art, the National Portrait Gallery, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

I wanted to see the Little Beasts: Art, Wonder and the Natural World exhibit. I’m glad we went, and I bought the catalog book, which I recommend. If you can get to the show, it’s worth a look. I learned a lot about (and gathered inspiration from) artists like Jan van Kessel the Elder.

I didn’t know what to expect in Washington.

The city was eerily vacant. There was even a street festival (lots of vendors representing central America, Honduras, etc.) and almost no one was about.

But, once we got inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture, it was packed! Wall to wall with visitors, everyone taking their time and reading about the installations. It’s an incredible documentation of our history, and it added to what I leaned in Memphis. It was nice to be with so many people adsorbing this information.

It was a good day trip, and one we both needed.

What follow is a photo dump, in no particular order, of things I’d like to share and to remember.